How Missing An Exit Gave Me A Business A-ha (Dorky, But True!)

I was driving home one day, down the interstate, when I realized that I’d just missed my exit. (I’m sure I was thinking important business-y thoughts, but whatever!)

I immediately slowed down. And I kept driving more slowly for a couple of minutes.

What was going through my head was ‘is the next exit the way to go? or should I try to do a turn in the middle somewhere?’
In other words, I had a distinct lack of clarity about how best to get where I wanted to go. And even though it made NO sense, I slowed down.

Driving quickly to the next exit, and either turning around, or taking a different route home, was definitely the fastest way to get where I was going. But because I was momentarily confused, and considering, I just wasn’t putting on the speed.

As I thought about it later, this is EXACTLY what happens in business.

If you’re not sure what action will get you clients, or grow your business, it’s hard to get excited and move quickly. After all, you don’t want to put energy and effort in a direction that’s taking you away from your goal!

Take my driving example, and imagine that in addition to my thoughts, there are dozens of people standing at the side of the road with signs, telling me they know the best way to get to my destination. Boy, is THAT confusing!

So how do you navigate when you’re not sure what direction is the right one?

1) Get clear on the objective.

Usually, we learn something ‘in order to’.

For example:
“I’m going to write blog posts in order to attract clients’.
And then you spend lots of time learning how to write the best blog posts.
But the objective is to get clients, so make sure that your activities are focused on that, not your ‘in order to’.

2) Commit to that direction.

You can’t get where you’re going if you go down one road, then detour to another road, then double back…
You can’t reach your business objectives if you’re spread too thin, trying too many different options.